1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for sending enable signals to sense amplifiers ("amps") in a computer memory. More particularly, the invention provides for the delay of a portion of those enable signals so that the peak power consumed by the sense amps enabled by the enable signals at any one time is minimized.
2. Prior Art
To read data from a memory circuit array, sense amps located at the ends of sense lines are generally utilized. When a read request is received by the memory circuit, a storage element is coupled to a sense line and the sense amp located at the end of the sense line is enabled to detect the voltage on the sense line, and to drive a corresponding logic signal onto the output line.
With the introduction of systems that utilize burst mode read operations from memory and wide data words of 64 bits or larger, sense amplifier induced supply noise can reach excessive levels. Typically, in a burst read operation, data is sensed for all words in the burst simultaneously. When sense amps are enabled they typically have an initial period of increased power consumption as they begin to drive the capacitive loads on their outputs. When multiple sense amps are enabled simultaneously, as in a burst read operation, the power surge that occurs can introduce undesirable supply noise into the system. This supply noise problem in wide word burst memories has reached the point where a new system is desired.